Kampala, Uganda - Day 167 - Boots on the Loose

Kampala is an incredibly green and hilly city; it’s fairly safe to walk around, even at night. An overhead map of it looks like a bowl of spaghetti and as a result it has some of the worst traffic problems we’ve seen; so far I’d say it’s one of my favorite Afican cities because it’s most like what I imagined cities in Africa to be like. There’s probably a 50-50 chance of the road you’re driving on being dirt at any given time; as well the city is plagued with power issues and regularly has rolling blackouts (it looks like all the vendors have been issued the same kerosene lamps by the gov’t). Got to town and checked into the Red Chili Campsite; had some dinner and headed out to meet an Irish fellow named Raph (pronounced “Reef”) for drinks whom we’d met back in Addis.

Was nice walking into the bar; people seemed fairly accepting (or at least “used to”) us whiteys being around and so tended to keep the looks to a minimum. Was a friday night so the bar had a big stage set up with a steady stream of lip-syncing acts coming out. At first I thought they were actually singing but the Enrique Iglesias duo kind of gave it away. It was difficult to keep myself from laughing at times, but looking around people seemed to be quite into it and I didn’t have the heart to tell anyone it’s a dead-end career move… Had a local girl join us and take us to a 2nd bar but in the end she seemed like she was more into our money than us.

At the risk of sounding like a dink and offending some people, I’ve been having a bit of a problem with the volunteering that every foreigner we meet seems to be doing. Obviously there are some great benefits from it too, but there are many bad things that it would cause as well (and don’t get me wrong… it was something Jen and I talked a lot about doing before we left). The first thing that comes to mind is the dependency it creates on something that won’t likely be well-maintained long-term (think colonialism on a smaller scale). Everyone here is with an NGO/Non-Governmental Organization (still trying to figure out what the difference is between that and a Corporation… yeah, yeah Corporations profit, but what does that really mean??), and if the NGO stops operating at some point in the future (as Corporations so often do), who will maintain the school they built? Also, man-power in Africa is some of the cheapest in the world; on top of that, everyone speaks English and are usually well-enough educated… why are we taking there jobs away? To make us feel better about ourselves??

One of the positions I saw was with an NGO called “Soft Power” and they wanted volunteers to go to a village with a translator and survey people about their mosquito net usage… I was confused why the translator wouldn’t fillout the form himself, or perhaps pay a local their $5 daily wage to do it… Anyway, end of rant, but I’m thinking there has to be better ways of helping the continent than this!

Next morning we decided to move to the other backpacker on the other side of town as they had more available than just dorms (sorry Alissa!); staff was a little more friendly anyway. Met a really good British couple, Tom and Steph that we ended up tagging along with out of Kampala; at times it’s rather uncanny how similar they are to us… finally someone else just TRAVELLING!!

There are 3 ways of getting to town in Kampala: personal taxi (ie. taxi), shared taxi (matatu/minibus), and boda-boda (scooter/motorbike). The first is relatively expensive (ie. $6), the 2nd is cheap but a bit of a walk from downtown, and the boda-boda is reasonably priced and most convenient in every respect… except well, every time I get on one it feels like it could be the last. Obviously no helmets, up the side of traffic, on the sidewalk, wrong way down one-way streets, through the craziest back alleys; apparently the drivers tend to be village kids trying to make a few bucks. Fair enough I suppose… haven’t died yet.

Went to go see “The Last King of Scotland” at the theatre; times weren’t right in the paper (surprise, surprise) so we saw a shitty Hugh Grant flick instead (Music and Lyrics). Went and got a haircut behind the car wash; everyone in Uganda has pretty much the same haircut… I told him not that short but apparently that’s all he does so now I pretty much have a shaved head. Ah well… time for a change; plus I got to listen to Kenny and Dolly during the experience (I’m amazed how much they listen to country here!!).

Next day we got to see the movie; it’s about Idi Amin (Forrest Whitaker) ruling Uganda back in the 70’s. Definitely deserved the Oscar for it; something about watching movies about the place you’re at when abroad (I’ve seen “Gorillas in the Mist” twice already since entering Uganda). Especially cool seeing shots of Kampala, basically across the street from where we were in the theatre.

Travelling with 2 girls is… interesting. Every little town we visit starts with a trip to the supermarket to “look around” (but never buy anything… except the odd jar of honey, or something a male would never consider); if the Lonely Planet mentions a coffee shop with magazines somewhere, that will usually be second on the list, even if its an hour walk along the equator to find it. The girls LOVE markets. We’ve probably seen 100 or more markets by now, but they’ll visit the one in the next town like they’ve never been to one before. When it comes time to find a hotel, it can never be the first one we see… until we’ve seen 3 others at which point we usually take the first one. But enough about that, I’m sure they could come up with an equally long list about me 🙂

Last day in Kampala I stayed at the hostel because I didn’t feel like seeing another market; went for dinner at a higher-end Chinese restaurant with Tom and Steph. Interestingly there’s a large Asian population in Uganda that own businesses (and thus lots of yummy restaurants!) They were all kicked out by Idi in the 70’s but have since returned; originally they were brought by the British to build the railway from Kenya.